Game-Theoretic Coordination for Time-Critical Missions of UAV Systems

Abstract

Coordinated missions involving uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) in dynamic environments pose significant challenges in maintaining both coordination and agility. In this article, relying on the cooperative path following framework and using a game-theoretic formulation, we introduce a novel and scalable approach in which each UAV acts autonomously in different mission conditions. This formulation naturally accommodates heterogeneous and time-varying objectives across the system. In our setting, each UAV optimizes a cost function that incorporates temporal and mission-specific constraints. The optimization is performed within a 1-D domain, significantly reducing the computational cost and enabling real-time application to complex and dynamic scenarios. The framework is distributed in structure, enabling global, system-wide coordination (a Nash equilibrium) by using only local information. For ideal systems, we prove the existence, and the Nash equilibrium exhibits exponential convergence. Furthermore, we invoke model predictive control for nonideal scenarios. In particular, we propose a discrete-time optimization approach that tackles path-following errors and communication failures, ensuring reliable and agile performance in dynamic and uncertain environments. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and agility of the approach in ensuring successful mission execution across diverse realistic scenarios.